County of Lecce

TheCounty of Lecce(Italian:Contea di Lecce) was a county located inApulia,in south-easternItaly,which existed from 1055 until 1463. Its capital was at the city ofLecce,and it was bounded by the territories ofBrindisito the north,OriaandNardòto the west, andSoletoandOtrantoto the south.

History

The county was founded by theNormansafter their conquest of Apulia in the 1050s. Several Norman monarchs held their court atLecce,andTancred of Hauteville,who was Count of Lecce from 1149 to 1194, was born here. His daughter Elvira Maria Albina marriedWalter III of Brienne,whose family held the duchy of Lecce in the following centuries. In 1384Mary of Enghien,a granddaughter ofIsabella of Brienne,became Countess of Lecce. When she marriedRaimondo Orsini del Balzo,Count of Soleto and (from 1393 to 1406)Prince of Taranto,all of theSalentowas united into one of the largest fiefdoms in theKingdom of NaplesandItaly.Raimondo improved the administration of the county and the city.

After his death, the county went to his son,Giovanni Antonio Orsini Del Balzo,who had also inherited thePrincipality of Tarantoin 1420. At his death in 1463,Ferdinand I of Naplesnamed himself as the heir to Giovanni Antonio's rich legacy, annexing the county to the royal estates of theKingdom of Naples.